British Ambassador to Indonesia Dominic Jermey said that coffee from social forestry of Indonesian communities is a mandatory dish for guests at his house.
“Honey from social forestry tastes spectacular, the coffee too … I use coffee products from social forestry at home and I share it with guests, it is an extraordinary luxury for me,” said Jermey in Jakarta on Sunday.
He appreciated the performance of Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya for the last 10 years saying that she has consistently been fighting for social forestry to empower communities while achieving sustainable development goals, so that it has been quite noticed by the international world.
“Statistics and data show that for ten years Indonesia has succeeded in reducing deforestation and other environmental achievements. I want to say thank you from the UK, hopefully the commitment to our future partnership will continue,” he said.
He is optimistic that, through various programs carried out in Indonesia, the world can adopt good practices to reduce global warming through community empowerment and mutual cooperation.
“Seeing what has been done in Indonesia for zero carbon emissions, social forestry, reducing deforestation to successfully reducing several hectares, I’m optimistic that the world can survive global warming, and Indonesia can be an example for that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Director General of Social Forestry and Environmental Partnership at Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry Mahfudz said that his party had prepared superior products for the social forestry exhibition from several regions such as Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Bali-Nusa Tenggara-Maluku.
“Social forestry products of our community, such as palm sugar, coffee, honey and handicrafts, that are exhibited today can become superior products to compete at the global level,” he said.
“Today, we have an agro-forestry coffee corner that we bring in from several industrial locations, such as from Wanagiri, Bali, Ciburial, West Java, Mattabulu, Soppeng, South Sulawesi and many other types,” he added.
According to Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, the community income has increased by Rp2.3 million thanks to empowerment in the field of social forestry.
“Social forestry has covered 8.018 million hectares for access to forests for around 1.4 million households. This means that we have increased community access to forests by eight million hectares compared to 2015 which was only 400,000 hectares,” she said.
“Thanks to the social forestry, the community wealth has also increased around Rp2.3 million per month per household,” she added.
Source from ANTARA
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